


Obligations to other Universes

by Bellaromanza



Category: Stargate Atlantis, Suits - Fandom
Genre: AU, Crossover, Gen, M/M, preslash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-12-10
Updated: 2011-12-10
Packaged: 2017-10-27 04:19:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/291555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bellaromanza/pseuds/Bellaromanza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mike gets recalled to Atlantis. Harvey finds military Mike hot, and kind of like Superman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

Mike was frantically typing, aware that it was time for Harvey to be hunting him down when he heard a very familiar voice ask, “Hey, we’re looking for Mike Ross?”

“Oh my God!” he shouted and jumped to his feet. “What are you doing here?”

The Air Force Sergeant and the big black Marine Captain, both in uniform with medals on, grinned hugely as Mike shot out of his cubicle and hugged them both.

“God, you guys look great, how are you?”

SSgt. Shep Wickenhouse shot a meaningful look at the Captain who did a thing with his hand that meant he was supposed to talk.

“No, really,” Mike said, ignoring the obviously curious co-workers whispering behind him, alarms starting to go off in his head.

“What ~are ~ you doing here? I mean, Manhattan is like off the beaten path.” His tone was meaningful and both men laughed.

“Well,” Captain Johnson sighed and rubbed a nervous hand over his head before his attention was caught by an approaching audience.

“What is going on here?”

Mike turned and shot Jessica a wide smile. “Hey, just a couple of old military buddies visiting, Jessica. May I present Captain Frank Johnson, United States Marine Corps and Staff Sergeant Shep Wickenhouse, Air Force. Guys, this is my boss and the owner of the firm, Jessica Pearson.”

Both men nodded politely, and chorused, “Ma’am.”

Jessica’s eyes were sharp. “Gentlemen, thank you for your service. And Mr. Ross, this doesn’t explain why they’re here.”

Harvey chose that moment to come up and frowned at Mike. “Ross? What’s going on?”

Mike shrugged and looked at his friends. “Just visiting?”

Johnson shook his head. “Yeah, not so much. Sergeant Ross, you are officially being recalled to active duty.” He tried to hand papers over but Mike ignored them.

“Um, no? I’m out, remember?”

“You were in the military?” Harvey asked, his voice rising in surprise. There was more whispering from the peanut gallery of associates.

Focusing on Harvey, Mike shrugged. “I joined the Air Force after high school. I had to get out when Grandma got worse.”

“Ross,” Shep said with a pained smile. “You’re still a reservist, even if you’re inactive.”

Jessica didn’t get where she was in corporate law without seeing that there was a bigger picture.

“Let’s adjourn to Harvey’s office,” she said before casting a jaundiced eye over the obviously eavesdropping associates. “I can send Louis down here if you all have nothing better to do,” she added sharply, watching with satisfaction as the associates scrambled so quickly for their desks that there were a couple of hilarious collisions. It said something to Ross’s state of mind that he hadn’t even noticed, and she saw Harvey frown as he caught the lapse as well.

In Harvey’s office, Mike sat beside Harvey on the small couch and watched as Shep stood by the door, obviously guarding it while Captain Johnson folded and spindled the papers he’d been trying to hand to Mike.

“Why? Or more to the point, why now?” Mike asked abruptly. His hands were deliberately dangling between his knees in an absurd parody of being relaxed. He wasn’t relaxed, he was wound tighter that a hooker at a religious convention.

Johnson sighed. “It’s classified,” he said, giving Harvey and Jessica a meaningful head tilt. “Suffice it to say, Dr. McKay asked for you, and the President agreed.”

"President?" Harvey shot out, exchanging a startled look with Jessica. 

"Classified," Johnson said in a firmer voice. 

“Mike,” Shep said softly. “You have to come.”

“Crap!” Mike uttered the curse word helplessly. The only way the Air Force, i.e. Dr. McKay, would recall him was if something had happened to Colonel Sheppard. Mike Ross had the second strongest manifestation of the Ancient gene the SGC had ever seen, and after he’d memorized the Ancient language, (and boy, Dr. Jackson had been pissed, then elated when Mike had corrected a translation he’d been working on) he had spent most of his time on Atlantis. He’d loved his job, and would have loved to stay but then his Gran had gone downhill and he’d had to leave. And he’d tried to bury the whole thing, despite missing Atlantis like a phantom limb. It was oddly weird how Harvey had taken the city’s place in his heart.

Harvey watched as Mike got up to pace distractedly. “The original reason for Mike’s leaving is still in place. His grandmother is still in a nursing home and he’s her sole source of support,” he said, firmly on Mike’s side in this, whatever ~this~ was. He still couldn’t believe that his mild mannered associate was former military. It was like finding out he’d been working with Superman, or some other less ridiculous metaphor.

Johnson nodded. “Yes, sir. We’re going to provide for her care.”

“We, of course, have a policy for reservists,” Jessica began, not that they had ever had to use it. There were not a lot of people who went to Harvard and then into the military. “Do you know what the timeframe will be?”

“Um,” Johnson said, exchanging a look with Shep when there was an audible squeal and Johnson winced. He pulled what looked like a super advanced military headset out of his pocket and put it on. “Excuse me, I need to take this,” he said to them. “Sir, yes, we’re here. We just told him. No. No, not yet. Sir…” the last was a somewhat plaintive whine that made Mike smile for the first time.

“Is that McKay?” he asked, making a grabbing motion with his hand. Johnson gladly handed the earpiece, which was still making squawking noises, over. Mike slipped it on and went to stand at the windows that overlooked Manhattan.

Harvey watched, exchanging a glance with Jessica that said she’d also noticed this suddenly very serious man, a stranger compared to the brilliant, competent but slightly goofy associate who’d they’d known for the last few months.

“McKay. McKay! This is Ross. ~Yes~, no. No, they haven’t told me. How long do you need me for?” he asked, and his face went blank at whatever he was hearing from the other man. “Okay. When? Uh huh, okay. Yeah, I’ll go with them. What about my apartment? What, no it isn’t a ~slum~, just because I live in New York City, I’ll still need it, uh huh. Yeah, okay.” He pulled off the headset and handed it to Johnson before turning to Jessica and Harvey.

“I’m sorry, Dr. McKay doesn’t know for how long but he promised as soon as we’re done he’ll send me back,” he said.

Johnson nodded in relief. “Shep, help Mike clear out his desk.”

Harvey stood. “I’ll help. Is there anything else? Does he need anything from his apartment?”

“No,” Johnson said even as Mike said, “Yes.”

“Mike, we won’t have time.”

“Jesus,” Mike said bitterly and stalked out of Harvey’s office, Shep on his heels.

Harvey hesitated at the door before glancing back. “What does Mike do for the military?”

Johnson looked visibly undecided. “He saves lives, sir.”

Harvey looked at Jessica, then nodded. “Good enough.”

 

Mike had shown Shep where the restrooms were and was busy picking through things in his desk when Kyle came up, a smirk on his face. “Fired, were you? It’s about time.”

“Kyle, go back to brownnosing Louis’s ass, please? I’m busy,” Mike said, not even glancing up.

“So, what did you do?” Kyle continued. “Did you go AWOL, is that what it’s called? Decided you couldn’t live with the ignorant slope-browed monkeys who couldn’t hack Harvard if they tried and decided the military was the only place that would have them. I always knew there was a reason that it always felt like I was slumming when I was in your presence…” he barely got the words out of his mouth when he found himself slammed up against the wall, a hand tight around his throat and Mike’s suddenly terrifying face in his.

“You need to shut the fuck up,” Mike growled. “The men and women who serve in the armed forces are head and shoulders above your inbred, WASP ass. They serve to keep your over privileged, ass kissing way of life safe and I will ~not~ listen to you ignorantly disparage them. Do you understand me?

“Mike,” Shep drawled, hands up as he cautiously came forward. “You can’t kill the obnoxious lawyer. Even the President couldn’t hide the body. Too many witnesses.”

Mike took a deep breath, then let Kyle go, watching with malicious satisfaction as the other man coughed and gagged as he slid down the wall. “I was in the Air Force, you dick. I can kill a man with a ball point pen. Do not fuck with me again,” he said and swept around back to his cubicle.

Harvey, who’d witnessed the last bit, was impressed and a little aroused. Military bad-ass Mike was sexy, and hello, was this the most inappropriate time to realize he was attracted to his associate?

“Someone go help Kyle,” he snapped and a couple of associates jumped and helped the gasping red-faced man to the restroom, making sure they took the long way around the pissed off Mike.

Mike handed a large bundle of files over to Harvey. “Here, everything else in my desk is stuff another associate can have.”

“Mike,” Harvey said, his voice gentle. “This ~is~ your desk. We’re obligated to keep your job for you until you come back. We won’t let anyone else take it, okay?”

Harvey’s deep brown eyes were serious and Mike had to swallow against the sudden tightening of his throat. “Thanks, man.” He was going to miss Harvey, his acerbic wit and his no nonsense, take no prisoners personality. Oh hell, he realized. He was attracted to Rodney McKay’s twin. He was doomed.

Johnson came down the hallway. “Wickerhouse, Ross. We need to go.”

“Yes, sir,” Mike said, shedding his civilian persona. He grabbed his suit jacket. “See you around, Harvey.”

Harvey nodded. “Be safe, Mike.”

~*~  
Mike was in science blue bdu’s, staring down at the man in stasis. “So, the Colonel touched something, again, and this is the result. Nothing physically wrong with him, right?”

“Nay, he’s in deep REM sleep but this,” Beckett pointed to the display above the unit, showing the red starting to creep into the green of the Colonel’s circulatory system, “is showing the beginnings of degradation and the stasis system canna seem to halt it.”

“I can’t help it if the Ancients couldn’t properly make a search engine for their ridiculous tech,” Rodney added bitterly. His hand was on the stasis unit, eyes fixed on the Colonel's face.

“How long?” Mike asked.

Beckett exchanged a glance with Keller. “Maybe a week, but nae more. We can work around the worst with Earth tech.”

“Okay,” Mike said. He patted the stasis unit briskly. “See you later, sir. I’ll have it figured out in a jif.”

In all, it took four days for Mike to discover as he read through the database that the device was a machine to enact complete relaxation when you were too stressed. Unfortunately the process had been fubared. When he told McKay, the man ranted about how even the fucking city knew that the Colonel had been working too hard and how he was going to rub his face in it and make him say that Rodney was always right.

“The problem,” Mike said, raising his voice over the rant. “It is supposed to be a finite amount of time according to the health of the individual. I’m pretty sure that two weeks is overkill.”

Radek grinned a little as Rodney sputtered at the interruption. Everyone knew that McKay only let Sheppard and Teyla derail his epic rants.

Blue eyes pinned Mike, but he had worked with Rodney enough to not flinch. “Well?”

“My theory is I think that the stasis unit screwed up the programming,” he said and Radek sat up with excitement.

“You think that stasis stopped process and now Colonel is like Sleeping Beauty, yes? He needs regular sleep, and stasis is retarding progress of original machine,” Radek finished with a triumphant smile.

“Exactly,” Mike agreed.

“You’re sure?” McKay demanded. “Keller had him placed in the stasis machine when he began to lose weight.”

“It said in one of the addendums that that weight loss is part of the process, I mean, if you’re in a coma the docs add nutrients and fluids. I think that if they’d just settled for that then the Colonel would have awoke on his own.” Mike shrugged. “It’s my best guess, McKay.”

“I concur,” Radek said when McKay’s hopeful eyes turned to him.

“Right, let’s head to medical,” McKay said.

~*

Harvey sighed, leaned back in his chair to stare out of his window. He missed Mike, it was as simple, and as complicated as that. He’d been attracted to Mike before, but he’d been able to push it off, justify it that Mike wasn’t nearly mature enough, hadn’t lived life and wouldn’t be able to be…well, anything to Harvey that Harvey would stay interested in. The military thing changed everything, though God knew why.

“Ah, are you moping again?” Donna asked as she brought in more files. Harvey had flat out refused to go to the associates cubicles. It was a slap in the face reminder that Mike was gone so he’d been using Donna as a go-fer, which she’d protested was beneath her dignity but agreed when she’d caught the look on Harvey’s face.

“Did those morons do a better job, this time?” he asked instead of rising to her jab.

Donna chuckled. “Marginally, yes. Louis is down there cracking the whip. I don’t think he realized how much of everyone’s work Mike had been doing. The accuracy is shockingly bad since he’s been gone.”

“I know, Jessica even mentioned it,” Harvey replied dryly. Jessica had stopped by the day before and off-handedly remarked that a couple of the other partners had mentioned the quality of work from the associates had noticeably dropped since Mike had left.

“He’ll be fine, Harvey,” Jessica had said, sitting in on of the chair in front of his desk that were usually used for clients. “I did some research, most recalls for the Air Force are not for longer than someone’s enlistment.”

“That could be two to four years, Jess,” Harvey said evenly. He’d done his research too. He also knew that in wartime it could be involuntarily extended.

Donna sat for a moment. “Are you going to tell him when he get’s back?”

“Tell him what?” Harvey said, playing dumb.

“Oh please, you’re moping around like your spouse has gone to war. Oh wait, he ~has~.”

“Donna,” Harvey plead quietly. “It doesn’t matter what I feel. Okay? He’s military, you know, ‘Don’t ask, Don’t tell’? And you of all people know he’s been sniffing around Rachel, and as good as my legs are, they’re not women’s legs.”

“Please,” Donna scoffed. “Don’t ask, Don’t tell’ has been abolished. And I know you’re not the most observant person when it comes to actual feelings, but Mike worships the ground that you walk on.”

“That’s because I’m the best closer in the city,” Harvey said.

Donna stuck a finger into her mouth and pretended to gag, making Harvey laugh. “Whatever, I’m going back to do some of my work for a change. Try to do the same,” she advised and walked to her office.

Harvey sat for a moment longer, watching the city before spinning back to his desk and delving into the files. The first one he opened made him wince. He ~really~ missed Mike.

~*`

John slowly stretched down to his toes, feeling more rested that he ever remembered. But when he opened his eyes his relaxation abruptly vanished.

“Gah! What are you all doing in my room?” he squawked. Beckett, Keller, Rodney, Ronon, Teyla and Ross were all staring at him. Wait a second, what was Ross doing there?

“You’re in sick bay, you nitwit,” McKay said, his usual bite softened as he settled onto the side of the Colonel’s bed. “You touched something, again and you’ve been taking your beauty sleep for almost two weeks. After all of the times you tell ~me~ not to touch, and look what happened!”

John absorbed that. “Is that why Ross is here? Hey, kid, how are you?”

Mike laughed. “Hey, Colonel Sheppard. Yeah, they needed my gene and my knowledge of Ancient to discover what happened.”

“Cool,” John said and he got a practically audible eyeroll from Rodney. “What ~did~ happen?”

There was some shuffling before Mike sighed with exasperation.

“Apparently you’ve been working yourself into the ground, again. The machine forces relaxation on you, a deep sleep appropriate to the level of stress that you’re under. You’ve been asleep for almost two weeks. Maybe the next time you’ll take some time off before Atlantis puts you back into a coma again.” His tone was sharp but his eyes were fond.

Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay had been the very best bosses he’d ever had. The Colonel didn’t stop until his people were safe while Rodney cared with the sharp edge of his tongue and pretend indifference even as he used his giant brain to save everyone. They cared, and Mike had taken the experience in Atlantis home with him. It was what he’d been having trouble translating to his job at Pearson Harden. To Harvey.

“Two weeks? God, I can’t imagine how much paperwork that I have,” Sheppard whined and everyone began to laugh.

~*~

Rodney sat next to Mike in the cafeteria, watching as the younger man happily forked up the fried tormack. “Can’t get anything like it at home, can you?”

“I miss it,” Mike said, chewing quickly. It was his last meal on Atlantis, he was scheduled to head back on the Icarus.

Wickerhouse, who was sitting beside him snorted. “He’s eaten his body weight in it already.”

“Shut up,” Mike said, shoving his friend.

“We missed you,” Rodney replied, not looking up from the coffee he was doctoring with way too much sugar. “You can come back, you know.”

Mike swallowed and sat back. “McKay, I have to go back. My grandmother needs me.”

“I know, I know,” the older man muttered irascibly. “I thought I’d extend the offer. You’re so much better than those morons that they SGC keep sending me.”

Chuckling, Mike took a sip of his bug juice. “Aw McKay, I knew you liked me,” he teased and ducked the half hearted swat. “I appreciate it, but as much as I miss being here, I miss being home more.” He never thought he’d feel that way, but his grandmother, and Harvey were in New York.

“Fine, fine,” Rodney said. “I’ve gotten you a little something for your going away ~again~ gift.” He pulled out a packet of papers out of the breast pocket of his science jacket and nonchalantly handed them over.

Mike took them and started flipping through them. “McKay!” he squeaked.

“Well, if you’re going to pretend to be a lawyer, you may as well have the proper paperwork to back it up.” Rodney said reasonably. He looked uncomfortable. “You helped save John’s life, okay?”

“God, you didn’t need to do this,” Mike said softly, smoothing the papers, including a very nice diploma from Harvard. Everything he needed to be a real lawyer, except the experience but he’d get that from Harvey.

“Well, we did,” Rodney said. He got to his feet and patted Mike’s shoulder. “Stay in touch, Ross.” He took his coffee and went off to berate some minions.

Wickerhouse snickered. “You look like a trout, Mike.”

Mike snapped his mouth shut and looked away from staring at Dr. McKay’s retreating back. He was going home.

~*~

It was less than a month since Mike had left when Harvey was heading out of the courthouse after wining yet another case for Pearson Hardman. The bright sun was glaring but suddenly he thought he saw a familiar shape getting off of a bicycle, a messenger bag banging against a familiar hip.

“Mike?” he called, sure that he was hallucinating when the man in question glanced up and grinned.

He didn’t remember how he got down the rest of the steps, but he came back to himself when he found himself hugging Mike tightly in front of the courthouse, making a spectacle of himself, and he didn’t give a fuck.

“I’m happy to see you too, Harvey,” Mike’s voice was filled with laughter, but he was hugging back just as tightly.

“Are you back for good?” Harvey demanded and he forced himself to put some space between the two of them.

Mike nodded, unable to stop smiling. “Yeah.”

Harvey let a slow smile out in response. “C’mon, let’s show those morons how to do their jobs,” he said and began to tow the unresisting man behind him.

“What about my bike?” Mike protested but he was laughing as Harvey manhandled him.

“I’ll send Ray for it later,” Harvey assured him. He watched as Ray greeted Mike cheerfully as they got into the town car and was amazed at how it felt like a missing piece of himself was back.

Once they were settled, Mike pulled a folder out of his messenger bag. “I have a gift for you,” he said and passed it over.

Harvey opened it curiously and sucked in a breath. “Is this for real?”

“Yeah,” Mike laughed. “A gift from my boss.” At Harvey’s quick look he amended, “Old boss. You know, for doing good. Don’t worry, it’s all there. Transcripts, diplomas, photos, everything.”

Harvey boggled at the influence that a favor of this type would require. “Huh,” he said. He flipped through the papers for a minute before resolutely closing the file. “Do I want to know what you were doing while you were gone?”

Mike smiled apologetically. “It’s classified. But nothing dangerous, I swear.”

Muscles he hadn’t realized were still stressed began to relax and Harvey nodded. He placed the file into his own briefcase before pulling another file out.

“Tell me what’s wrong with this,” he said.

“Harvey,” Mike whined but eagerly took the file and began to go through it. He was back, he was with Harvey and he was sure that the older man had real feelings for him. His life was good.

Harvey met Ray’s eyes in the mirror and smiled. Mike was back. Life was good.

~*~

The financial office of the nursing home was a busy place. One of the women opened an envelope and glanced at the information in the letter before looking at the check. Her mouth dropped when she caught the number of zeros. Mrs. Ross’s future looked like it would be smoother sailing for a long time to come.


	2. Mike's accidental trip to the SGC

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Mike was discovered by the SGC.

Mike was pissed as he jogged through NORAD’s upper floors. There had been some kind of evacuation and he’d been in the bathroom and hadn’t known and now it looked like he was alone on the level, lights flashing and alarms blaring.

Who in the hell doesn’t put alarms in the restrooms? Jesus, Mike bitched to himself.

Mike had graduated high school at 17, class valedictorian. Unfortunately, during the time he needed to be filling out college and scholarship applications he’d been dealing with his grandmother’s sudden and devastating illness. He hadn’t known what he was going to do when the Air Force recruiter had come to his school. The man had sold him a lot of bullshit, but the line about the Air Force paying for college had caught Mike’s attention, and he’d signed as soon as he’d gotten his diploma.

He’d been sent to Kirtland AFB in New Mexico for Pararescue and Combat Rescue School, then he’d been dumped at NORAD to go through training manuals and replace them with newer editions. Nothing like a boring job not related to your training, at least Grammy was happy that he was safe.

Now he was checking security stations for the evac procedures when the sound of gunfire and other unfamiliar noises caught his attention.

“Great,” Mike groaned, ducking behind on of the stations and sighing. “Someone is invading America and I’m the sitting duck. Grammy would be so proud.”

“You’ll never get out of here,” a voice shouted and more weird sounds were heard. All of the alarms abruptly ceased and the sudden silence was startling.

“I will call my people and we will feast!” an unearthly voice called back, it’s voice sounding hungry, distorted and just hearing it had Mike shivering where he was hiding.

“This is bad, so very bad,” Mike whispered and began to frantically search for any kind of weapon he could find. He didn’t find a weapon but found one of the SF’s I.D. cards that must have been left behind in the chaos. He carefully popped his head over the console and caught sight of the weapons locker for this station. Not seeing the person that the voice belonged to, he moved as silently as he could and popped the locker open, wincing at the loud click of the lock disengaging. The door swung open and he immediate grabbed a P-90 and turned around to find a guy that looked like he was way overdressed for Halloween, with teeth like a shark’s.

“Shit!” he yelped and immediately raised the gun up and began to fire. Unfortunately the thing, even though it staggered back as it was hit by the bullets, immediately began to heal and Mike thoroughly freaked the fuck out.

“What in the fuck are you?” he shouted, stumbling back as he continued to fire.

The thing grinned and was about to speak when a voice from behind ordered with a shout, “Get down kid!” and Mike immediately obeyed, falling to the floor and covering his head. Weapons fire whistled overhead for a solid minute, then the silence was so quiet that Mike thought he’d went deaf. Something went rolling from the dead whatever it was’s hand, towards Mike who grabbed it, then yelped when it lit up in his hand.

A boot nudging his arm made Mike look up into the grinning face of a white haired General. “Nice job, kid. You kept it busy.”

Mike stared at the man (hello, General!), then at the hand that was being held out. “Um, thanks, Sir?” he stuttered and let himself be hauled up.

“You bet. Oh, and you’re gonna have to sign some non-disclosure agreements,” the man said blithely, nipping the thing out of Mike’s hand and stuffing it into his pocket.

“Great.” Mike involuntarily looked down at the body of the thing that had attacked him, and went lightheaded. “What is that?”

“Whoa,” the General said and grabbed him by the arms as his knees went. “Were you hit? Airman? We’d better get you checked out.” And that was lights out for Mike.

 

Waking up in the infirmary wasn’t an unpleasant experience. A hot male doctor noticed he was awake before he leaned over him and asked, “Airman Ross, how are you feeling?”

Mike blinked up at him, and abruptly remembered everything that had happened. It was sometimes a curse to have an eidetic memory. “Um, I’ll live?” he ventured.

The doc snorted and flashed a light into his eyes, making him twitch and swallow a curse. “Yeah, you will. You’re fine, it was just shock. The General wants to see you.”

“Awesome,” Mike muttered as he gingerly sat up.

 

In the General’s office, Mike found the man playing a Gameboy. He looked back at the Sergeant who’d let him in but the man just jerked his head and Mike shrugged.

“Sir.”

The General nodded, “Hang on. Just about got the little bastard,” he said, then did something that made the little computer cheer and said, “Hah, gotcha.” He thumbed the controls off and dropped it into a desk drawer before looking at Mike expectantly. “So, you’re gonna live?”

Mike had to suppress a hysterical giggle. Never in his life had he met a more laid back, non-regulation type General. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. I’m General Jack O’Neill, two ‘l’s. I command this base. And you are Airman Michael Ross, from New York City, eidetic memory, top of your class in both boot-camp and school working in a ho-hum job in NORAD. How do you like it so far?”

Mike cleared his throat. “Well, no one was shooting at me?”

“Bah, boring,” the General said flippantly. “What if I told you I could offer you a job that would challenge you everyday? That pushed the bounds of science and reality?”

Mike’s heart was eager (he didn’t like to listen to his heart much, it tended to get him into trouble) but his brain was cautious. “Doing….?”

The General smiled and pulled out the round thing that Mike had caught, watching as it lit us just the way it had in Mike’s hand. “This little thing, for instance. What did it tell you?”

Mike blinked. He remembered that the ball had mentally, well, not spoken but stated its designation, but Mike had thought it was his way over active imagination. “Um, is it a weapon?”

O’Neill nodded. “It is. There’s a mental component to Ancient technology, and 1 out of ten million have the gene that makes it work. Congrats, welcome to the family.”

Mike couldn’t help but be fascinated, and he hesitantly reached for the ball, fingers just skimming the glowing surface as it rested in the general’s hand. He could feel the echo of the General and the weapon’s interface, or whatever it was. He felt a mental prod and pushed back, and was amazed when he could see the specs, sort of, since it was in another language. He could also feel the ponderous weight of something infinitely powerful behind it, something that called to Mike, just a faint echo but there nonetheless.

The General smiled faintly. “So, are you interested yet?”

Meeting the General’s eyes, Mike nodded. “Oh yeah. Tell me everything.”

~-

And that’s how Mike ended up in Atlantis.


End file.
